Desktop Support Contract Job Trends

Desktop Support
UK

The median Desktop Support daily rate in the UK is £200, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 442 313 296
Rank change year-on-year -129 -17 +4
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 191 229 317
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.40% 0.78% 0.73%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.44% 0.85% 0.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 148 133 236
10th Percentile £145 £150 £126
25th Percentile £156 £183 £145
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £200 £205 £200
Median % change year-on-year -2.68% +2.50% -
75th Percentile £230 £248 £225
90th Percentile £259 £298 £283
UK excluding London median daily rate £195 £205 £200
% change year-on-year -4.88% +2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 30 30
10th Percentile £16.48 £13.75 £16.25
25th Percentile £19.54 £16.83 £18.44
Median hourly rate £20.18 £20.32 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year -0.66% -3.26% -5.62%
75th Percentile £21.46 £24.54 £28.31
90th Percentile £24.65 £30.98 £30.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.91 £23.00 £23.75
% change year-on-year -13.43% -3.16% +22.58%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 43,629 27,082 40,416
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.33% 92.55% 92.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,928 17,690 26,310
10th Percentile £315 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £492
% change year-on-year +3.16% -3.46% -1.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,807 1,034 2,664
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.15 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.50 £18.50 £16.30
Median hourly rate £44.00 £29.00 £36.42
Median % change year-on-year +51.72% -20.37% -19.07%
75th Percentile £66.00 £62.50 £60.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.46 £28.00 £39.55
% change year-on-year +62.36% -29.20% -6.94%

Desktop Support
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Desktop Support' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Desktop Support job vacancy trend in the UK

Desktop Support
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Desktop Support job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Desktop Support job vacancies in the UK

Desktop Support
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Desktop Support over the 6 months to 1 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Desktop Support in the UK

Desktop Support
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Desktop Support job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Desktop Support job vacancies in the UK

Desktop Support
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Desktop Support over the 6 months to 1 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Desktop Support in the UK

Desktop Support
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Desktop Support within the UK over the 6 months to 1 May 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -114 173 £200 -4.43% 14
UK excluding London -105 151 £195 -4.88% 10
London -67 37 £225 +0.78% 3
Midlands -59 32 £200 -5.00% 2
East of England -16 28 £195 -10.34% 1
South East -59 27 £172 -16.34% 2
North of England -80 25 £230 +17.95% 4
East Midlands -10 24 £200 +1.66%
South West -47 22 £210 -5.62% 1
Work from Home -26 16 £163 -49.22% 1
North West -43 13 £225 +16.13% 2
Yorkshire -54 12 £230 - 2
Scotland -12 9 £213 +21.43%
West Midlands -65 8 £140 -33.33% 2
Wales -5 7 £160 -
Northern Ireland -3 1 £175 +16.67%

Desktop Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 1 May 2026, Desktop Support contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Desktop Support in the job title.

1 124 (64.92%) Windows
2 92 (48.17%) Microsoft
3 72 (37.70%) Active Directory
4 71 (37.17%) Microsoft 365
5 66 (34.55%) Customer Service
6 53 (27.75%) Windows 10
7 38 (19.90%) Microsoft Intune
8 36 (18.85%) Azure
9 35 (18.32%) Problem-Solving
9 35 (18.32%) SC Cleared
9 35 (18.32%) Security Cleared
10 29 (15.18%) ITIL
11 27 (14.14%) Migration
11 27 (14.14%) SCCM
12 23 (12.04%) Service Delivery
12 23 (12.04%) SharePoint
13 21 (10.99%) Continuous Improvement
13 21 (10.99%) Mac OS
13 21 (10.99%) SLA
14 17 (8.90%) Asset Management
14 17 (8.90%) Microsoft Office
15 16 (8.38%) Android
15 16 (8.38%) Apple iOS
15 16 (8.38%) Logistics
16 15 (7.85%) Entra ID
16 15 (7.85%) VPN
17 14 (7.33%) Degree
17 14 (7.33%) Microsoft Exchange
17 14 (7.33%) ServiceNow
18 13 (6.81%) Time Management

Desktop Support Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 23 (12.04%) SharePoint
2 14 (7.33%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 17 (8.90%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (4.71%) Spreadsheet
3 2 (1.05%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (1.05%) assyst
2 1 (0.52%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 71 (37.17%) Microsoft 365
2 36 (18.85%) Azure
3 15 (7.85%) Entra ID
4 4 (2.09%) Google Ads
4 4 (2.09%) Google Workspace
4 4 (2.09%) OneDrive
4 4 (2.09%) Slack
5 2 (1.05%) Microsoft Copilot
6 1 (0.52%) Google Drive
6 1 (0.52%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 15 (7.85%) VPN
2 9 (4.71%) DNS
3 8 (4.19%) DHCP
3 8 (4.19%) TCP/IP
3 8 (4.19%) Wireless
4 7 (3.66%) Cisco IOS
4 7 (3.66%) Skype
5 4 (2.09%) Wi-Fi
6 3 (1.57%) Softphone
7 2 (1.05%) Firewall
7 2 (1.05%) LAN
8 1 (0.52%) IPv4
8 1 (0.52%) Remote Desktop
8 1 (0.52%) Telepresence
8 1 (0.52%) Unified Communications
8 1 (0.52%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.52%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 4 (2.09%) JIRA
General
1 71 (37.17%) Social Skills
2 19 (9.95%) Analytical Skills
3 16 (8.38%) Finance
4 10 (5.24%) Public Sector
4 10 (5.24%) Telecoms
5 9 (4.71%) Retail
6 8 (4.19%) Manufacturing
7 7 (3.66%) Law
8 6 (3.14%) Electronics
8 6 (3.14%) Marketing
9 4 (2.09%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (1.05%) Legal
10 2 (1.05%) Local Government
10 2 (1.05%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.52%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.52%) Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.52%) Software Packaging
1 1 (0.52%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 19 (9.95%) Smartphone
2 17 (8.90%) Self-Motivation
3 13 (6.81%) Onboarding
4 8 (4.19%) Hybrid Cloud
5 7 (3.66%) iPhone
5 7 (3.66%) Management Information System
6 6 (3.14%) Mobile App
7 5 (2.62%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (1.57%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (1.57%) Driving Licence
8 3 (1.57%) iPad
9 2 (1.05%) Data Centre
9 2 (1.05%) Hedge funds
9 2 (1.05%) Video Conferencing
9 2 (1.05%) Virtual Team
10 1 (0.52%) Analytical Mindset
10 1 (0.52%) Augmented Reality
10 1 (0.52%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 124 (64.92%) Windows
2 53 (27.75%) Windows 10
3 21 (10.99%) Mac OS
4 16 (8.38%) Android
4 16 (8.38%) Apple iOS
5 8 (4.19%) Windows Server
6 7 (3.66%) Windows 7
7 4 (2.09%) Windows 8
8 1 (0.52%) Linux
8 1 (0.52%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 66 (34.55%) Customer Service
2 35 (18.32%) Problem-Solving
3 29 (15.18%) ITIL
4 27 (14.14%) Migration
5 23 (12.04%) Service Delivery
6 21 (10.99%) Continuous Improvement
7 17 (8.90%) Asset Management
8 16 (8.38%) Logistics
9 13 (6.81%) Time Management
10 12 (6.28%) Incident Management
10 12 (6.28%) ITSM
11 10 (5.24%) Computer Science
12 9 (4.71%) Disaster Recovery
12 9 (4.71%) Inventory Management
12 9 (4.71%) Project Delivery
12 9 (4.71%) Service Management
13 8 (4.19%) BCP
13 8 (4.19%) Data Migration
13 8 (4.19%) Root Cause Analysis
14 7 (3.66%) Infrastructure Management
Programming Languages
1 12 (6.28%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.52%) Python
Qualifications
1 35 (18.32%) SC Cleared
1 35 (18.32%) Security Cleared
2 14 (7.33%) Degree
3 9 (4.71%) ITIL Certification
4 8 (4.19%) A+ Certification
5 3 (1.57%) Computer Science Degree
6 2 (1.05%) Microsoft Certification
7 1 (0.52%) DV Cleared
7 1 (0.52%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (10.99%) SLA
System Software
1 72 (37.70%) Active Directory
2 4 (2.09%) Firmware
3 3 (1.57%) Virtual Desktop
4 2 (1.05%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.52%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 38 (19.90%) Microsoft Intune
2 27 (14.14%) SCCM
3 2 (1.05%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.52%) WSUS
Vendors
1 92 (48.17%) Microsoft
2 14 (7.33%) ServiceNow
3 11 (5.76%) Apple
3 11 (5.76%) Cisco
3 11 (5.76%) HP
4 8 (4.19%) Starlink
5 7 (3.66%) Dell
5 7 (3.66%) McAfee
6 6 (3.14%) SAP
7 5 (2.62%) Google
8 3 (1.57%) Bloomberg
8 3 (1.57%) Citrix
9 2 (1.05%) Remedy
9 2 (1.05%) Salesforce
9 2 (1.05%) VMware
10 1 (0.52%) Altiris
10 1 (0.52%) Barracuda Networks
10 1 (0.52%) CrowdStrike
10 1 (0.52%) Nexthink
10 1 (0.52%) Veeam